THE CASE OF DR. SMETHURST.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XVI, Issue 1274, 29 November 1859, Page 4

THE CASE OF DR. SMETHURST.

Some of the friends of Dr. Smethurst having hazarded a statement that the jury empanelled before the coroner at [Richmond had memorialised for the remission of the sentence, eleven of them have signed a letter, addressed to the " Times/ in -which they declare that the statement alluded to is entirely false, and that they still adhere to the decision they came to, believing it to be strictly in accordance with the evidence adduced. It would seem that the authorities at the Homeoffice are in great difficulty as to the course that should be taken with this prisoner under the peculiar circumstances of the case, and not the slightest intimation has been given as to what is likely to be his ultimate fate. A good many persons appear to think that, as the fact of his being reprieved necessarily implies a serious doubt of his guilt, the prisoner ought to receive a free pardon, but it is a very common practice in cases where there is a doubt that the act was committed by the prisoner for the capital sentence to be commuted to one of penal servitude or transportation for life ; and among the many instances of this there may be cited the cases of Corrigan, for the murder of his wife in the Minories, Kirwan, for the murder of his wife at Dublin by drowning, and that of the woman Butter, who was convicted at the late summer assizes for the murder of her husband by cutting Mb throat. In all these caseß the punishment of death was commuted to penal servitude for-life ; and if a similar course were taken with regard to Dr. Smethurst, it would be quite in accordance with the precedent that has been established. The prisoner still continues to assert, in -the most earnest manner, his entire and absolute innocence of all participation in causing the death of Miss Bankes, and there appears to be very little doubt that he is strongly impressed with the idea that he will receive a pardon. He has addressed several letters to the Home Secretary, and in one of these communications it is said he states that he cannot prove his innocence unless he is set at liberty, and declares that if he has this opportunity he will prove conclusively that he is entirely innocent of the crime of which he has been convicted. Dr. Todd, writing from Switzerland on the sth, and before he could have received notice of the reprieve of Dr. Smethurst, says that after the most careful consideration he finds himself unable to arrive at any other conclusion than that Isabella Bankes died by the frequent administration of antimony and bichloride of mercury, with occasional doses of arsenic.

Kajhowam of Advertising.— Advertising is an expedient for obtaining business by no means generally practiced. Many tradesmen are deterred by the expense ; some have no faith in its efficacy ; others think it a mark of second-rate status in business, and therefore more apt to be injurious than otherwise. On the other hand, some tradesmen make a system jof advertising, planting every kind of periodical, from the daily newspaper to the quarterly review, with specifications of their anxiety to serve the public, and the merits of the articles in which they deal, and evidently spending a considerable sum of money yearly in this way. The unconcerned reader and the less acute tradesman, struck by the frequency of these appeals for business, are apt to suppose that he who makes them must be less under the influence of wisdom than of folly, and a good deal of a. pretender or a quack into the bargain. Theremay be even a class who make a principle of disbelieving and disregarding all such appeals, and like the Irishman, when much entreated to come, the more they won't come. Yet the regular discharge of advertisements keeps up nevertheless, and the trader must evidently find it serviceable upon the whole. It may be worth while to communicate to young tradesmenrthe ideas of an old one upon the subject. They are simply and briefly as follows :— « The first utility of frequent and regular advertising consists in this— there is at all times a large class of persons, both in country and town, who have mo fixed places for the purchase of certain necessary articles, and are ready to .be swayed and drawn towards any particular place which is earnestly brought tinder their notice. Indifferent to all, they

yield without hesitation fro the first who asks. Then, in the country, a considerable number of persons who w«h a supply of the article advertised, and do not know of any particular pl»x» where it is to be got, being thus furnished with the address of a person who can supply them, naturally open a communication with that address, which perhaps leads to much ulterior business. People in the country are also liable to be favourably impressed by the frequent sight of a name in the newspapers. The advertising party acquires a distinction in their eyes, and thus they are led in making a choice to prefer him. But by far the most ant effect of advertising is one of an indirect nature. It conveys the impression that the party — pretending or not pretending, quackish or not quackish — is anxious for business. One who is anxious for business is unavoidably supposed to be an industrious, attentive, and civil person, who keeps the best of articles, at the cheapest rate, does everything in the neatest and most tradesmanlike manner, and in general uses every expedient to gratify and attach customers. People, of course, like to purchase under those circumstances, and the system of advertising assuring them that such eirounv stances exist at this particular shop, they select it accordingly." Such are the opinions of the old tradesman alluded to, and they are certainly supported by fact ; for whenever an extensive and regular Bystem of advertising is practised, and no back-drawing or unconquerable circumstances exist, it is usually seen 1 to be attended with a considerable share of success. One feature in the philosophy of the (subject must be carefully attended to. A faint and infrequent system of advertising does not succeed, not even in proportion, "Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring." — Cka?nbers' Journal.